IN THE FIELD: Old Timers

Recently I came across a group of plants growing in a bog garden I have never seen or even heard of before. They are known as Rough Horsetail, or Scouring Rush Horsetail. The botanical name is Equisetum hyemale. This species of plant is actually a living fossil and once dominated the late Paleozoic forests about 100 million years ago. Along with many other species of plants and animals from that era, it has survived and continues to flourish even today.

Thanks Gracie, they are cool looking aren’t they? I still can’t figure how with all my days of fishing, canoeing, kayaking, and time spent on the water I have never seen these before. Supposedly they rather common. Who knows….

Ya know….It is rather calming…maybe that’s why I keep staring at it. I had no idea what this was so I had to do some research which turned up fascinating tidbits of info on-line and it is fairly widespread around the world.

Thanks Kerry, If I remember correctly, I was about ten to twelve feet away. I had leaned the tripod against a split rail fence that was engulfed in some underbrush. The plants were to the left of where I was standing/leaning. The left side of the image has been cropped due to a broken stalk that was too distracting to the overall image.

Very nice photograph – I like the simple approach you took. We have a lot of Equisetum around here, but usually they have stiff tufts of foliage sticking out from the joints on the stem, and thus don’t photo nearly as nicely as this.